E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ I will not take it to the police. I do not trust them. You shall find me my gold.”
“What is your piece of evidence?” I asked.
“The little gray man,” he answered, “the man whom they spoke of as visiting the South Americans in the next suite. Ah, those South Americans—I never trusted them! I saw Madam make eyes at Metzger. What need had she of Metzger! A woman like that has lovers enough.”
“About the little gray man?” I ventured,
“They speak of him in the evidence,” Gorty went on eagerly. “He was at the suite that night. ”

“ Rimmington shook his head.
“We don't want her,” he said. “She's just the decoy who may some day whistle her mate to his cell. It's a knock for us, Greyes. Neither De Miguel nor his wife nor Michael Sayers!”
“But we have the gold,” I reminded him once more.
“Damn the gold!” Rimmington retorted profanely.
But Gorty thought otherwise. So, when he recovered consciousness, did Metzger.
(Another spirited episode in this greatest detective-story series since “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” will appear in the forthcoming July issue of The Red Book Magazine.) ”

“ He spent his time between Downing Street, where he boldly accused the Government of having taken the gold, and Scotland Yard, where he expressed his opinion of the English police system in terms which made him, to say the least of it, unpopular there. In the beginning the whole affair had seemed so simple. Mr. and Mrs. de Miguel, distributing gratuities in most lavish fashion, had driven calmly away from the Milan at the appointed hour, and had arrived at Waterloo in ample time for the train which they had planned to take to Southampton. ”

“ I am not a man with many human weaknesses, but I should have welcomed a visit from Janet—a little dinner, perhaps, at the Café Royal, a peep into the world of many-colored pleasures outside of which my path lay. ”

“ Rimmington said quietly, “as a person who has had some experience in these matters—I am Inspector Rimmington of Scotland Yard—I should advise you to be a little careful how you deal with these large, old-fashioned houses. In the present case you may be interested to know that the little forge in the studio at the Sanctuary has been used for the purpose of melting down Russian gold.”
“God help us!” the agent cried. “What, the Gorty and Metzger gold?” ”

“ They are the custodians of a hundred thousand pounds in gold, with which they hope to establish a few private credits in this country. On the other hand, the country to which they be long owes us something like a hundred times that amount. They have a somewhat natural fear that any bank with whom they might deposit their treasure might be disposed to hand it over to the Government, or that the Government, by some legal means might attach it.”
“Therefore,” I observed, “it remains in their rooms?”
“Precisely! They consider it the lesser risk.”
“And Gorty goes to Manchester tonight?” ”

“ I said. “The great thing is that the gold has not been removed and that Metzger will be alone. There were other little details.”
“Just so!” Mr. Younghusband assented, leaning back in his chair with his finger-tips pressed together. “So far as regards the setting of the affair, I think you will find it in order. Metzger and Gorty occupy Suite 89 at the Milan Hotel, which suite consists, as you know, of two bedrooms, a bathroom and a sitting-room. The sitting-room is on the extreme right-hand side of the suite, and the gold is kept in Metzger's bedroom, which opens from the sitting-room. ”

“ Rimmington quickened his pace. We all broke into a run. We avoided the front door, with its flight of stone steps, and went straight for the building which we now perceived to have been the studio. The door of a long outbuilding stood open. We paused to look inside. There was a furniture van there, and inside, some clothing of rusty corduroy. The uniforms of the pseudo-porters at Waterloo were accounted for. ”

“ Rimmington said, as we descended to the ground floor to meet the men whom he had summoned from Scotland Yard. “we get it in the neck sometimes about our failures. This time if we don't get hold of De Miguel and his heavy trunks, I should think we deserve all the censure we get.” ”

“ No one has done so. No one has seen Metzger leave the place.”
“We are to presume,” I asked, “that he's still in the hotel?”
“Precisely!”
“You have had him searched for?”
“Half a dozen men have searched every corner of the place. No one in the hotel has even caught a glimpse of him.”
I went through the rooms again. When I came to the bedroom adjoining the sitting-room, and which the floor waiter told me was Metzger's, I noticed that the wardrobe was locked. ”

“ Entrance to the studio itself was gained by means of a stout oak door, obviously barred and bolted. We went round to the back, crossing a lawn where the grass and weeds were up to our knees. We failed te discover any other door, but somehow or other we found our way through a smashed window into the great room with its dome-shaped ceiling. ”

“ She is in a private car, and there is a strange man seated in front with the chauffeur.”
“It looks well,” Rimmington admitted. “Our friend has ordered the same table for dinner tonight at Romano's.”
On our way I had a moment of uneasiness. A gray touring-car passed us at a great speed and shot down the Brentford Road, considerably ahead of us. Rimmington spoke for a moment through the tube, and we pulled up at the district police-station.
“We've given Michael rope enough,” he decided. “He may get the alarm at any moment now. I'm going to have him arrested.” ”

“ The inference is that the gold is still in London. To proceed: What have we learned about Janet? She is staying in a boarding-house in the Cromwell Road, frequented by artists. She spends an hour or two every day at the South Kensington Museum, studying statuary. It is exactly four days since she brought a little specimen of some sort of work to Michael, something that, unless I am mistaken, was of considerable weight, for I noticed that her handbag sagged as she walked up to the restaurant. Further—”
THE telephone-bell rang. ”